Good Friday of Lent
April 18, 2025
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Psalm 22 |Hebrews 10:16-25 | John 18:1-19:42
Good Friday Lent Devotion
by Gerry Yokota
Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in Osaka, Japan
The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage was not an independent event but rather one iteration of an international movement spanning 18 countries and over 150 cities. Pilgrimages were held from January until the end of March to coincide with Lent. The Osaka pilgrimage was held on March 23. It was mainly organized by Christians responding to a call from Palestinian Christians to repent in our complicity with colonialism, especially the occupation of Palestine by Israel. It was open to people of all faiths who pray for peace in that region.
The course was designed to enable pilgrims to experience just one day in the life of a refugee ordered to evacuate their home, fleeing from the north to the south of Gaza, desperate to evade bombing. It was charted by overlaying a map of Gaza with a map of Osaka, as pilgrims sought to communicate the people’s plight and appeal to the world for aid. We walked 40km in 10 hours, departing from Oyamazaki in Kyoto Prefecture at 8am and arriving at our destination in Higashi-Osaka around 6pm. For the first 20km, we walked along the Yodo River. For the last 20km, we walked the streets of Osaka.
To recreate the atmosphere, I would like to quote from the article by fellow pilgrim Nakajima Takashi published in Asahi Shimbun on April 2. It reads like a poem.
“At first, I had the energy to ask questions. We enjoyed the spring blossoms along the roadside, birds flying high in the sky, white egrets standing in the water. But we soon fell into silence. Rainwater filled our shoes. It was cold. The landscape was unchanging. It felt endless. It became arduous.”
Then Gerry said, ‘I am in Gaza, and Gaza is in me. When I chant these words, my footsteps naturally fall into a four-beat rhythm that keeps me going.’ Around 1pm, we left the riverbank and headed into the city. We were halfway to our destination. My feet got heavier and heavier. Stairs were an agony to climb. A red light afforded a precious break. When it turned green, it was hard to step off the curb.
“The forecast had called for rain. Wouldn’t such an event normally be canceled in such a case? There is a huge difference between hearing a figure of ten hours as someone else’s business and walking it yourself. I apply the figurative whip. Surely I can be forgiven for dropping out. I am in Gaza, I am in Gaza…”
At the closing ceremony, Ramone said, ‘It was raining, but we were walking in a safe place. Our socks may have gotten wet, our feet may have hurt, but we have a home to return to. Will the Palestinians ever be able to return to their homes?’ Gerry said, ‘We never dreamed of cancelling due to rain. In Gaza, it’s raining bombs.’ My feet hurt and I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home. But I looked up at the sky that had finally cleared and I realized, now Gaza is in me.
The fruits of this pilgrimage for me went beyond empathy and solidarity. It strengthened my will not to give in to despair. If we want our Palestinian friends to have faith that the day will surely come when they are liberated from injustice, it is our solemn duty to support them in maintaining that faith. Nelson Mandela famously said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” His words carry all the more weight because of his own bodily experience of 28 years of incarceration.
But how to turn this feeling of solidarity, this solemn sense of duty into action? So that we do not turn and look the other way, pretend not to see what happened and what is happening in Palestine, in Hiroshima, in Nagasaki, in Okinawa, in Myanmar, on the Korean Peninsula? How do we defend ourselves against the isolation and dehumanization that hardens the walls around our hearts? May we all find the strength to find what is ours to do.
Professor Gerry Yokota is semi-retired as of 2020 from Osaka University, where she had taught in the School of Language and Culture since 1988. She continues to teach in the International College. Prof. Yokota organized a Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in Osaka in April of 2024 and continues to be an advocate of nonviolence.
To read the previous devotional click here: https://cmep.org/prayers4peace-maundy-thur-of-lent/
A printable PDF of all of this year’s Lent devotionals are available for download and printing HERE
These devotions were written early Spring 2025 and may contain figures and events that have changed at the time of reading.